John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I want to respond to some of the previous comments because this is a varied debate with contributions coming from either end of the spectrum in relation to businesses and business people. I hear much judgment in the Chamber on how businesses operate. I am familiar with businesses in this city for which it is, and has been, costing them €80,000 to €100,000 per month to remain shut. I do not know of many business people who set out to abuse their staff or to take advantage of the situation we are in to save themselves having to spend money on their staff's wages in the way that has been described. Every person who goes into business does so out of good motives. There are bad apples in every profession but the predominant feeling among businesses in Ireland is that they want to survive and to be given a way to survive.

I congratulate the Tánaiste on his new role and wish him the best. It is an onerous position and a responsibility that is hugely burdensome and will remain so for the foreseeable future. It is dawning on the business sector and people at large that this pandemic is here in some shape or form for the foreseeable future. We can only pray for a vaccine.

I echo the comments made by some of my colleagues about the reopening of some businesses yesterday. It was good to see a queue on my way in here this morning outside one of the local barbershops. It has been a struggle for business people in recent months. In other countries and jurisdictions we have seen that when furlough payments ceased, as they have in some countries and states that are ahead of us, some businesses did not reopen because they were unable to do so. I hope we do not face that here but it seems to be the reality in some other countries.

I want to throw out some ideas for exploration to the Tánaiste in his capacity as Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment. There are some suggestions the Tánaiste could look at with Dublin City Council. I had many dealings with Dublin local authorities in recent months in terms of the needs of businesses. Hospitality is one of the areas that faces great challenges. There is much scope in that area. I know from Dublin City Council that traders in the hospitality sector are pushing an open door with it in terms of facilitating street trade but we need to push that. As many structures as possible need to be put in place to facilitate our hospitality businesses in being able to operate and provide their services to the public. That is particularly true for outdoor trading because people feel safer outdoors. I know that when South Korea was reopening its economy after the first wave, one of the diktats the authorities were setting down aside from the usual hand washing and 2 m distancing was that people should eat fast. We must try to create as many open space environments as possible for people where they feel they can be safe. I saw some local pubs in my constituency do that last night where people feel they can stay, eat and socialise to a certain degree. The vast majority of people are responsible.

The Tánaiste might comment on what kind of planning has taken place, what we have learned and what structures we have in place to learn from other jurisdictions that required a further lockdown or require further lockdowns. Nobody can envisage a repeat of the mass lockdown we experienced here in late March. What are we learning from the experiences of other cities that have had to isolate or enforce localised lockdowns?

Internal tourism is significant and has been referred to by others. The importance of hospitality and event management will not be lost on the Tánaiste. We are sitting in a 2,000-seater auditorium. I searched it on Google last night just to see what the capacity of this place was and it accommodates 160 of us, using the proper and appropriate physical distancing measures. That is a catastrophic sign for the event and conference management sector, which is worth hundreds of millions of euro to the country and involves bringing people from outside of the jurisdiction in here. The immediate outlook for that area looks quite pessimistic. The Tánaiste might comment on that. I know from reading in the media that the Cabinet is to make some decisions on travel into the country but the fact that we can only fit 160 people into an auditorium that holds 2,000 captures the reality of the crisis that is facing what is a huge industry.

The Tánaiste might also comment on the food supply chain, which we have taken for granted. I am not seeking to raise alarm but I would like the Tánaiste to comment on it to see exactly where we are on that. The food supply chain has been incredibly solid and I thank the wholesalers, importers, retailers and everyone who stocked the shelves and who continues to stock the shelves. They are another section of the unsung heroes and I know the Tánaiste acknowledged that in his previous role as Taoiseach.

There has been an interesting McKinsey report analysing the impact of Covid-19 on businesses. It suggests that some small businesses may close because they are in industries such as accommodation, food services and educational services that are affected by changed customer behaviour. I do not know what we can do to help with that, especially considering the physical distancing and mandated operational restrictions that were in effect during the pandemic. Other small businesses, and the Tánaiste has alluded to this, may close because they were already at financial risk. If there is one lesson we can learn, and McKinsey points to this, it is that some retailers such as the local supermarkets and retail outlets thrived during the pandemic but then the rules insisted that some retailers closed, such as those providing clothing and homeware. The great paradox was that the businesses that were allowed to remain open began stocking these kind of products, which they had never sold before. The McKinsey report says that we embedded a behaviour by closing down some retail outlets and reversing that embedded behaviour and the pattern of not allowing the public to use those clothes and homeware shops has embedded a behaviour that will be difficult to reverse and we may need to look at that. The McKinsey report said that within retail, for example, three quarters of clothing stores reported a large negative impact on their businesses as of 23 May. This is not in Ireland but in a different economic context. However, only one third of food and beverage stores reported a large negative impact. The report makes the connection that food and beverage stores remained open but clothing and apparel stores were closed for the bulk of the period of Covid-19. In restoring people's confidence, it has gotten into the psyche of people that these are places one does not go to. We need to do something to regenerate public confidence in those stores. The report states:

This disparity probably reflects differences in which businesses were classified as essential and therefore allowed to continue operating. In other sectors, short-term lapses in demand may affect differences among subsectors.

In my constituency, I talked to South Dublin Chamber representatives this morning, and they said businesses need to be able to trade with the confidence that they can buy supplies and services and have the ability to pay. They made the key point - I know the Tánaiste will be aware of this, but it has to be reinforced and re-emphasised - that loans work for some companies, and the reduced rate loans that are available are very much appreciated in the business and commercial sector, but if a business has been closed for three months, another debt is not what it needs; likewise with deferred payments. The Tánaiste might comment on that. What South Dublin Chamber is saying is that some SMEs need cash injections that will allow them reopen with confidence, and that confidence will be repaid through VAT returns and PRSI contributions from employers and employees.

As for delays in payments, South Dublin Chamber acknowledges the huge contribution of the public sector in facilitating and processing the payments to the business sector during Covid but also that it should be remembered that many small businesses cannot pay themselves and other staff and that if there are delays in those payments, that has significant impacts. What it suggests is that this work could be prioritised in the allocation of resources, ensuring that waiting times for these payments are reduced.

The business continuity voucher of €2,500 was very welcome in south Dublin, and it would be good if it could be reinstated or if something similar could be brought in. The trading online voucher finishes today, according to South Dublin Chamber. It would be great to continue it. The LEOs offered mentoring for free. That was also appreciated. South Dublin Chamber is looking for those two schemes to be made available again. That would be good in our constituency.

Finally, just to give context, at this time of the year in south Dublin, there would normally be approximately 8,000 Spanish students. They would spend six weeks in the constituency, paying fees, making contributions of approximately €1,200 per student and then spending between €1,000 and €1,500 each. The host families, education, tuition fees, etc., amount to approximately €16 million. There are no Spanish students in Dublin now and this is having an impact on a micro area of the economy.

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